Spring 2020 Honors Program Courses

Spring 2020 Honors Program Courses

We provide course descriptions written by instructors whenever possible (scroll further down this page to see them).
For official descriptions, visit the University Catalog.

For official descriptions, visit the University Catalog.
We provide course descriptions written by instructors whenever possible. 

Course Descriptions

EBIO 1220-880: General Biology 2
Robert Buchwald
Are humans currently evolving? Should you be concerned about eating genetically modified plants? What, exactly, is a cephalopod? We will answer all these questions and more in EBIO 1220 – a concentrated introduction to evolution, the diversity of life, and ecology & conservation biology. As an honors class, we will also incorporate several outside readings, critical thinking exercises and presentations, such as “Biology in the News,” “Nutrition Myths, Truths & Quackery,” and “Natural Selection Misconceptions.” This course is intended for EBIO (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology) majors, other science majors (such as Psychology, Kinesiology, Biochemistry, etc.), as well as other majors for which biology is a requirement. EBIO 1240 (laboratory) is a co-requirement for potential EBIO majors and as specified by your particular major (please see your departmental advisor if you have questions). Students who simply need to satisfy the Natural Sciences core requirement should consider taking EBIO 1030, 1040, & 1050, “Biology—a Human Approach,” which are lecture/lab courses for non-Biology majors. If you have questions about this, please see me or your departmental advisor. Although it is not a pre-requisite, this course assumes that you have taken EBIO 1210 or its equivalent, since lectures in EBIO 1220 often rely on knowledge gained from EBIO 1210. If you have not taken EBIO 1210 or the equivalent or are concerned about your background, please see me.

ENGL 2504-880: British Literary History After 1660 - From Book-Burning to Brexit
Nicole Wright
Focusing on the history of British literature from 1660 through the twenty-first century, this course encompasses both close reading of primary sources and thematic explorations. It will cover some of the most pressing issues of the past and present, including: book-burning and censorship (John Milton's Areopagitica and/or Paradise Lost); gross-out humor and winner-takes-all competitiveness (The Dunciad); sexual consent (The Country Wife); scientific progress run amok (Frankenstein); social networks, extraverts, and introverts (Mansfield Park); colonialism and racism ("The White Man's Burden"); so-called "toxic masculinity" and "incels" (Look Back in Anger); trauma and being "extremely online (The Sugar Syndrome); and more. What you can expect to gain from this course: The opportunity to hone critical thinking skills and develop solid arguments; a working knowledge of the Western legacy of literary history in modernity; and the ability to bonnect concerns of distant cultural moments to current hot-button issues; and improvement of your writing skills, for a start.  Questions? Email: Nicole.Wright@Colorado.edu.

ENGL 4026-880: Special Topics in Genre, Media, and Advanced Writing:  Millennial Ecofictions
Karen Jacobs
This course considers a selection of recent American ecofictions in the context of posthuman and postnatural theory. These ecofictions rework the category of “nature” outside of a realist narrative framework but still take their bearings from notions of environmental degradation and sustainability. In the wake of the new geological epoch known as the Anthropocene (in which the divisions between nature and culture, human and extra-human scales have been destabilized) these fictions depict “postnature”—a category that considers the escalating contamination, homogenization, and mediation of the natural, often through posthumanist and post-anthropocentric lenses. We will begin by asking how historically prior discourses about home and nature—from the Enlightenment and Romanticism through Indigenous discourses—variously imagine nature’s laws and forms of order as well as its mystery, beauty, violence, and vulnerability. Along with the ecofictions themselves we will read selections from the recent “posthuman turn” in the context of the contemporary environmental crisis. Beginning with the premise that posthumanism sees itself as a philosophical corrective to the instrumentalization of nature and human/animal and human/non-human hierarchies, we will ask how persuasively its different versions articulate their utility. We will consider the politics of the Anthropocene and anthropocentrism; how they may variously challenge ideas of place and home; the philosophical roots of instrumentalist conceptions of nature and their alternatives; questions of resources, sustainability, and bio-regionalism; and eco-cosmopolitanism, environmental aesthetics, and environmental justice.

GEOG 1972-880: Environment-Society Geography 
Abby Hickcox
The goals of this class are to increase your understanding of key contemporary environmental issues and to introduce you to the ways in which the field of geography has approached the interaction between society and nature. In pursuit of these goals, the class will survey global and regional environmental issues and problems, with an emphasis on their social, political-economic, and cultural dimensions. The study of these issues evokes one of the most profound questions of our times: What is, and what ought to be, the relationship between humans and the environment? We will address this question through an examination of selected environmental issues, varied social responses to environmental change, and the different ways in which human societies have transformed the earth. We will also ask:  How do we understand “nature”?  What drives human modification of the earth, and how are specific groups of people differently affected by those modifications? What kinds of assumptions have led to the creation of certain environmental problems (and for whom are they problems)? Topics covered include: population and consumption; environmental hazards; ecology; environmental ethics; biodiversity and environmental conservation; anthropogenic climate change; and water use. Through this class, you should find that geography offers an integrated way of understanding environment and culture that is increasingly useful for addressing some of the world’s most pressing problems and their potential solutions. Formerly GEOG 2412. Meets MAPS requirement for social science: geography.

GEOG 3742-880: Place, Power, and Contemporary Culture
Abby Hickcox
Place, power, and culture are dynamics that shape our social structure and our daily life. This course takes a geographic approach to place, power, and culture, examining different ways to understand each and how the three relate to each other to shape our society and urselves. It presents a radical reexamination of the geography of culture, asking whether culture is a thing with causal powers or a way of understanding how we experience the world and what that experience means to us. The course explores how the globalization of economics, politics, and culture shapes local cultural change and how place-based cultural politics both assist and resist processes of globalization. The first half of the course introduces key terms such as culture, place, power, globalization, mobility, identity, and difference and explores their relationship with one another. The second half of the course focuses on specific contemporary cultures, such as the culture of things (material culture), American car culture, food culture, sports culture, and music culture. Seeing culture as both a way of life and a lens through which to understand the world, we will consider not only the uniqueness of American music, for example, but also the way that music shapes American people, politics, and life. Approved for arts and sciences core curriculum: contemporary societies.

HIST 1025-880: American History Since 1865
Paul Sutter
Explores political, social and cultural changes in American life since Reconstruction. Focuses on shifting social and political relations as the U.S. changed from a nation of farmers and small-town dwellers to an urban, industrial society; the changing meaning of American identity in a society divided by ethnicity, race and class; and the emergence of the U.S. as a world power.

HONR 3220‐880: Advanced Honors Writing Workshop
Andrea Feldman
This course introduces honors students to an analysis and argumentation as they are rendered in longer prose forms. As such, the course provides excellent preparation for writing an honors thesis. With the collaboration and thoughtful feedback of your colleagues in class, you will have the opportunity to engage in independent scholarship in your area of expertise. Our informal theme for the semester will be cultural rhetoric. In responding to texts that represent cultural diversity, students will evaluate issues and relate them to their own experiences. Through these readings as well as class discussion of written assignments, students will learn to make reasoned arguments in defense of their own opinions. By examining diverse voices, this course helps students meet the challenges of academic writing. This course will extend your ability to adapt rhetorical strategies and arguments on cultural issues and diversity to address the needs of a range of different audiences and stakeholders. Writing Process and the Workshop Format: The course offers an opportunity to understand writing from the audience or reader perspective by focusing on the peer review of work in progress. Through this approach, you will discover how revision is central to the writing process. Your own writing will be the principal text; we will all work together as a team to improve each paper. We will adopt the attitude that any paper can be improved, and give constructive criticism to everyone. Your job will be to provide oral and written commentary on other students' papers when assigned to do so. Approved for Arts and Sciences Core Curriculum: Written Communication.

PHIL 1400-880: Philosophy and the Sciences
Robert Rupert
By many measures, the scientific enterprise has been wildly successful. Partly for this reason, some philosophers have tried to emulate science, while others have criticized it fiercely. In this course, we will try to understand what is distinctive of science. What is a scientific theory? How are scientific theories confirmed or rejected? Should we accept our most highly confirmed scientific theories as literally true or instead treat them as merely useful? What philosophical problems arise in connection with specific sciences, such as biology or psychology? What is the relationship between scientific thinking and other modes of human thought, for example, philosophy, mathematics, or religion? In this course, we will address these and related questions.

PHIL 1200-880: Contemporary Social Problems
Chris Heathwood
Examines competing positions in debates over a wide variety of controversial moral, social and political issues. Topics may include: abortion, world poverty, animal rights, immigration, physician-assisted suicide, freedom of religion, hate speech, cloning, income inequality, pornography, gun rights, racial profiling, capital punishment, overpopulation, prostitution, drug legalization, torture. Formerly titled 'Philosophy and Society.'

PSCI 2223-880: Introduction to International Relations
Megan Shannon
This class explores puzzles in international politics, including: If war is so costly, why do countries fight? If trade is economically efficient, why do countries sometimes restrict trade? If everyone values the earth's resources, why is global cooperation over the environment so hard to achieve? We investigate these and other questions by identifying the interests, interactions, and institutions that lead to global outcomes. Actors have particular interests, but when they interact with others, they may end up with outcomes that do not reflect their interests. Global actors also work under institutions and rules that can constrain and change their behavior. By exploring the behavior that results from interests, interactions, and institutions, we explain today's events and make predictions about the future.

SOCY 1006-880: Social Construction of Sexuality
Ali Hatch
This is an introductory course on the sociology of sexuality. As opposed to thinking of human sexuality as the inevitable expression of biological instincts or drives, we will use a social constructionist framework to explore the ways in which we as a society create our sexual reality. Throughout the course we will explore the construction of sexual orientation and gender as they impact our cultural and individual understandings of sexuality. Additionally, we will examine the roles institutions and individuals play in creating and maintaining sexual hierarchies and policing sexual choices.  

SOCY 3016-880: Marriage and the Family in the United States 
Ali Hatch
This course is designed to examine marriage and the family in the U.S. from a sociological perspective. We will look at how marriage and family are fluid constructs, transforming and evolving over time. As the majority of families currently do not fit the “nuclear” model, special emphasis will be placed on the various realities of people’s lives and how they differ from cultural ideals. In addition to general class readings, students will get to pick a book from a list of subject-related options on a topic of their choosing.

WGST 2600-880: Gender, Race, and Class in a Global Context
Kate Fischer
This introductory course examines how constructions of gender, race, and class are structurally determined and lived through in today’s global society. It applies an interdisciplinary perspective to identify how history, politics, culture, economics, and social life converge with and shape the way gender, race, and class are understood. While the course primarily focuses on women, it is impossible to ignore how race and class articulate with ideas about gender and how these socially determined characteristics form a triad for identity construction and subjectivities. The goal of this class is to create awareness of the contemporary inequities that plague our global society and develop a critical understanding of how forms of privilege and exclusion based on gender, race, and class are written about, comprehended, and contended with. To that end, we will read a novel, a graphic novel, and two academic books as well as a number of scholarly articles during the course.